Herons in the Mangroves: Mexico in February

Rio La Tovara near San Blas on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

On our last day before leaving Mexico we had a boat trip at 4 pm which took us from our hotel in San Blas first to the mouth of the Rio Arroyo Grande and then through the mangroves lining the narrow Rio La Tovara. Night fell as cruised upstream and we returned in the dark. On the way out we saw a number of birds in the mangroves, including the three species of heron shown below. Even in daylight it was dark under the mangroves.

   This Tricolored Heron Egretta tricolor was moving slowly on the lookout for fish

  Green Heron Butorides virescens also on the hunt

  Boat-billed Heron Cochlearius cochlearius. One of a small group.
They often feed by night and eat anything that moves, from mammals to shrimps

As darkness fell Snowy (Egretta thula) and Great (Ardea alba) Egrets were gathered to roost

Seeing the aptly named Boat-billed Herons was appropriate seeing we were staying at a hotel—an excellent hotel—with the same name: the Garza Canela.

A Good Summer for Garden Butterflies

 Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui

Small Tortoiseshell Aglais urticae

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta

The stars of the show this year with up to seven in the garden at any one time. Feeding on nectar and then the fallen over-ripe plums.

Life at the Top 3: Southern Rock Hyrax on Table Mountain, South Africa. Life on the Edge

Tourists on Table Mountain may miss the mammalian interest simply because they spend so much time looking at the views that they forget the rocks below their eyeline. On those rocks, often only inches from the edge, are groups of Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis) doing what hyraxes do best and for a long time—lying in the sun, interrupted only by playful young, itches that have to be scratched and overhead large predators. If South Africans spot them they will immediately call them 'dassies' because that's what they call hyraxes in southern Africa.

Everybody knows that hyraxes are most closely related to elephants but they are fascinating animals for all sorts of reasons. Some features like their feet are obvious.They have sweat glands on the soles such that they are tacky when climbing. The soles of their front feet touch the ground when walking; in other words they are plantigrade. The heels of the hind feet are raised slightly off the ground when walking. This semi-digitigrade condition is one which provides some spring to their step when moving on rocks.

Other features are not so obvious. The generic name, procavia, was derived from cavy (i.e. guinea-pig), early taxonomists considering them some primitive form of the South American rodents. Apart from appearance they do share some characteristics with cavies: a long gestation (very long in the hyrax, 6-7 months); young are mature at birth, able to run around and soon eating solid food. They also have peculiarities during pregnancy. In most mammals, the hormone progesterone increases in concentration in blood as pregnancy progresses; in hyraxes it does not, the blood itself metabolising the hormone into different compounds. Two of my former colleagues did that research in the 1970s. That raises all sorts of questions as to what induces parturition and the onset of lactation in hyraxes.

Grey [now Long-tailed] Sibia: a colour plate from 1937

In the days when colour printing was extremely expensive, the Avicultural Society had special appeals for funds to support the appearance in Avicultural Magazine of the occasional colour plate. A well-known bird artist was then commissioned. Although the whole run of the Society’s magazines can be found online, the plates rarely see the light of day. Therefore I decided to show one, now and again, on this site. This is the 22nd in the series.

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The plate bore the signature of M. Dovaston. That can only be Margaret Isabel Dovaston (1884-1954) although the subject was far from that for which she is best known—oil paintings of historical English interior scenes depicting groups of figures from the 18th century. She produced these in considerable numbers which together with prints sold particularly well in North America. They became popular decorative art for living rooms. Originals still sell well, with up to US$44,000 recorded. She had a studio in Acton. She was educated at South Kensington School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. A clue that she must be the artist of the plate in Avicultural Magazine is that she kept budgerigars and other birds. She was not a member of the Avicultural Society and this is the only painting by her I can find in Avicultural Magazine.

The article accompanying this plate was written by Albert Sherriff (1895-1968), a stockbroker living in Hampstead, who earlier in the century had changed his name from Sondheim. Sherriff had also donated the plate which suggests he commissioned Miss Dovaston to paint the sibias. He wrote:

The Grey Sibias, so well portrayed on the opposite page by Miss Dovaston, are new to aviculture. They were imported from Sumatra by Mr. Frost in the early part of 1936. They are about the size of a Shama with an equally long tail which is barred with white on the underside.

Early last year I gave two of these Sibias an aviary to themselves, and was fortunate enough to find that they were a true pair as there is no apparent sex difference. A nest was built in the fork of a tree in which two blue eggs, similar in size to those of a Blackbird, were laid. After sixteen days the young were hatched and were well cared for by the parents.

Unfortunately, three days later, I decided to try the same experiment with the Grey Sibias as had been so successful with the Black-headed, and allowed them liberty. The second night after, the cock forsook the aviary and disappeared…

Because it was very difficult to provide enough small invertebrates for birds in captivity to rear their young successfully, it was common practice for birdkeepers to open their aviary doors and allow birds to forage for themselves in the neighbourhood. Local sparrowhawks and cats were often the grateful recipients of easily-caught and unexpected meals.

Wilfred Frost was a well-known collector in south-east Asia about whom a book could and should be written. He sold his birds to zoos and wealthy collectors like Sherriff.

Both common and scientific names have been changed since 1937. The birds from Sumatra have been 'lumped' and are now regarded as a subspecies of Heterophasia picaoides, H. p. simillima. The Long-tailed Sibia occurs from Nepal and south-western China through south-east Asia to Sumatra.

Richardson’s Ground Squirrels: in the news and in excess

Richardson's Ground Squirrel or Flickertail
Minot, North Dakota 2023

In 2023 I described how we had seen the Flickertail or Richardson’s Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii) when we were in North Dakota earlier that year. We were staying at a hotel in Minot, around 50 miles from the Canadian border. Spotting the ground squirrels was easy. They were in the mowed grass bank directly in front of the hotel.

One morning we headed north to the Upper Soris Wildlife Reserve and passed the main gate of Minot Air Force base. Later as we drove south to Bismarck and an excellent dinner, a Boeing B52 flew in low from the south and passed directly overhead towards the base.l Minot is home to a B52 bomb group, an aeroplane that entered service in the year I left primary school. I can even remember the excitement of the boys in the school playground at the hope of seeing the new Stratofortress. It only took 49 years.

However, I was amused to see that Minot Air Force Base was in the news earlier this year because the whole place is being over-run with Dak-Rats i.e. Dakota Rats, as these ground squirrels are called in the base. The US Air Force was suggesting that not only do they spread disease but their tunnelling undermines housing, runways and other equipment. 

And it not just the air base that is concerned, the 48,000 inhabitants of the city of Minot are also complaining about the increase in numbers and the problems the ground squirrels cause. They are being shot, trapped and gassed with carbon monoxide in their thousands. And we thought ourselves lucky to spot a few next to the hotel. No wonder though that North Dakota has the nickname ‘Flickertail State’.

Iguanas: Two Species. Western Mexico January-February 2025

Heading out of the marina at Puerto Vallarta for two spectacular whale-watching trips, lizards above and below the boat's gunwhales attracted our attention. Sunning themselves in the early morning sun were Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana) while on the rocks below was a Western Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura pectinata), the latter occurring along the coastal belt of north-west Mexico.

Green Iguana in the palms above the boat

Western (Black) Spiny-tailed Iguana on the rocks of the marina wall

Spiny-tailed iguanas are thus named for the keeled scales along their tail which are particularly pronounced at the anterior end, forming rings of spiny protrusions. Dark, often piebald, in colour another common name for the species is Black Spiny-tailed Iguana or just Black Iguana. By contrast, the young are bright green. Adult spiny-tailed iguanas are mainly herbivorous

The next time we came across one was on top of the wall of the old fort building overlooking the harbour and town at San Blas. It was longer (they grow to around 1.3 metres) and darker, moving occasionally to catch the rays of the late afternoon sun.

Western Spiny-tailed Iguana on the roofless wall of the fort at San Blas

The rings of low spines can be seen on the tail

The iguana was on the top of the wide wall of San Blas Fort (built in 1760)

...while Turkey Vultures made used of the modern facilities provided

Willoughby Lowe (1872-1949). Collector of specimens for the Natural History Museum in London. Part Four: 1909—A live Monkey-eating Eagle from the Philippines

Willoughby Lowe (1872-1949) was a highly-praised collector for the Natural History Museum in London as well as an all-round naturalist. Counting just birds he added over 10,000 specimens to the Museum. Lowe wrote two books on the various expeditions of which he had been part and there are summaries available online on what he did and where he went. However there is little of his life and background. He travelled with interesting, important and infamous people in pursuing the zoology of the day. In an endeavour to provide a fuller picture of Lowe I have scoured family trees (often inaccurate or incomplete), original material available on genealogy websites (again thanks to clerical errors sometimes inaccurate) and the like. There are still important gaps and I hope readers will contact me if they have more information. To make that job more manageable, I am splitting Lowe’s life into parts. This fourth part deals with the aftermath of his collecting trip to the Philippines in 1907. 

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Painting from life of the Monkey-eating Eagle at London Zoo
by Henrik Grønvold
from Seth-Smith 1910

Claudio Lopez y Lopez

The Spanish-owned Clyde-built ship Claudio Lopez y Lopez docked in Liverpool on 30 August 1909. Very soon a crate was unloaded and sent on to London. The next day the avian occupant of the crate reached London Zoo and promptly became a media star.

To recap, Willoughby Lowe had called on his friend Father Llanos (the spelling varies by account) in Manila before leaving in August 1907. Father Llanos said that he would get a live Monkey-eating Eagle for him. Thanks to an article in The Ibis on that eagle and the species in general by David Seth-Smith (1875-1963 in 1910, I can add some flesh to the bones of the story. A search also showed that Father Llanos was the Rev. Florencio Llanos, Director of the Museum of Santo Tomas University in Manila who also seemed to have been known earlier by his double-barrelled surname Llanos y Lopez. The museum, founded in 1871, is the oldest in the Philippines.

I have combined information from the paper by Seth-Smith, passenger lists available online and additional information  from seemingly reliable press reports. Seth-Smith followed up his article with a letter to The Ibis containing information on the bird bound for London and on the habits of the bird in the wild. Seth-Smith though provided the caveat:

It should, however, be understood that Father Llanos received his information from natives, and that it would be unwise to place too much reliance upon its exact accuracy.

Did Seth-Smith not realise that the best people to talk to about their native fauna are the local inhabitants? However, he may have been questioning the interpretation of what had happened when the bird was trapped since shortly afterwards another one was caught but it being larger broke the cord of the snare and escaped. This larger bird was referred to as a male but of course in birds of prey it is the female that is larger and so the ‘female’ bird in London may have been a male. But it wasn’t. Post mortem it did prove to be a female.

Llanos wrote to Willoughby Lowe on 12 January 1909 reporting that a specimen had been trapped alive on the island of Mindanao. It had been caught in September 1908 by using a noose set by native trappers with a small pig as bait. Another letter sent on 3 May 1909 reported that the bird was doing well in a large cage and renewing its tail feathers. On 13 July the eagle left Manila for Liverpool via the usual ports, the Suez Canal and Spain. It was looked after on board by the ‘Captain and two passengers’ according to The Field of 4 September. It was fed on chickens. The Captain of the ship was Ramon de Llano but I think he must have been the sole keeper for the last bit of the voyage since there were no passengers from Manila on board by the time the ship docked in Liverpool.

I have not been able to find if the bird was met on arrival by anybody from London Zoo or escorted at all on that journey which surely would have been by rail.

Seth-Smith noted that the eagle preferred eating newly-killed pigeons to rabbits and other small mammals.

Media and public interest in happenings at London Zoo in the early decades of the 20th century was intense and aided to a considerable extent by the Zoo’s publicity machine. The eagle appeared in numerous articles, sometimes with photographs, in the newspapers and magazines. The Daily Mirror, then aimed at a middle-class readership, carried a photograph as did several well-known magazines. Provincial newspapers throughout Britain carried a short syndicated piece.

Daily Mirror 2 September 1909

I suspect there were several elements that made this an attractive story. Firstly the name, Monkey-eating Eagle, conjures the vision of a huge predator swooping on monkeys in the tree tops. Secondly, it was the first seen in captivity outside the Philippines. Thirdly, an earlier but dead specimen had made the newspapers in London since it was the type specimen to which its scientific name was linked. The gist of the story (see HERE for details) is that Juan, the servant of John Whitehead the British naturalist-explorer, trapped the bird in 1896. The specimen was sent to the Natural History Museum in London. Its first appearance was at a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club held in a restaurant on Oxford Street in December of the same year. William Robert Ogilvie-Grant from the Museum who exhibited the skin named the the bird Pithecophaga jefferyi, the generic name to reflect its alleged sole prey of monkeys, the specific name, for Whitehead’s father who financed his son’s travels. The story of the eagle was, in a competitive era between museums, between zoos and between countries, seen as a double first for British zoology—alive and dead.

Seth-Smith used a painting of the bird at the Zoo by the well known natural history illustrator Henrik Grønvold (who also provided illustrations for Lowe’s The Trail That Is Always New). Anybody who has kept birds-of-prey will realise that the bird depicted is unwell. Indeed it survived only 5 months in London. Seth-Smith wrote:

On the 8th of February, 1910, this Eagle refused its food for the first time, and on the following day looked decidedly “out of sorts,” though it was impossible to determine what was wrong with it. It died three days later, the post mortem revealing tuberculosis as the cause of death. The atmosphere of London must be so very different from the pure air of the mountainous regions where this species has its home, that perhaps it is not surprising that it should be susceptible to a disease which is all too prevalent in large towns; but the loss of this fine bird, the first of its kind to reach any Zoological Garden, is very much to be regretted. It is satisfactory to know that the specimen, which proved to be a female, has been well mounted by Rowland Ward and is now exhibited in the Natural History Museum.

A drawing by Henrik Grønvold
from Seth-Smith 1910

The newspapers covered the death of the eagle but a fair number made a hash of the report, stating that Willoughby Lowe himself brought the bird back from the Philippines. Later in the year that mistake was repeated when the mounted bird was first exhibited at the Natural History Museum. The London Evening Standard gave credit to Willoughby Lowe for capturing the bird and bringing it back alive. Oh well, journalistic standards have never been high.

The Monkey-eating Eagle has had its name changed to Philippine Eagle and there is now a considerable amount of information on the Critically-Endangered species. It is the longest of the eagles but being a forest bird shorter winged than the eagles of open country. Seth-Smith said it reminded him of a huge goshawk. Both the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) from South America and Steller’s Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) are heavier and bulkier.

Deforestation by logging or clearance for agriculture is the major problem for maintaining a stable population since the territory occupied by a breeding pair is over 40 square miles. The species has been bred in captivity in the Philippines since 1992 mainly by artificial insemination. However, when the amount of suitable habitat is limiting population regrowth, all the captive breeding in the world is not going to provide the solution.

The eagle in London in 1909-1910 was the start of zoos in Europe, North America and Japan having individuals on display until the late 1980s. One in Rome Zoo, an adult when captured, lived for another 41 years. A history of the individuals kept in captivity by Richard Weigl and Marvin Jones appeared in 2000.

Finally, a great deal is now known about what these eagles eat in the wild. They are opportunistic predators as the Wikipedia article shows, taking prey from the size of a small bat to a small deer. On islands where there are colugos (Mindanao) they are the main prey. On Luzon where colugos are absent, monkeys, cloud rats and reptiles make up the bulk of the diet. Domestic mammals and poultry do not remain unmolested; neither do large birds like owls and hornbills.

A photograph I took in Manila Zoo in January 1967
The cere shows signs of recent damage such as is seen in
birds having flown into large mesh wire netting. I wonder if
it had been in one of the large aviaries before being moved
to this cage with relatively small mesh.

Seth-Smith D. 1910. On the Monkey-eating Eagle of the Philippines (Pithecophaga jefferyi). Ibis 52, 285-290.

Seth-Smith D. 1910. [Letter]. Ibis 52, 758-759.

Weigl, R, & Jones, M. L. (2000). The Philippine Eagle in captivity outside the Philippines, 1909–1988. International Zoo News vol. 47/8 (305).